What is a just city and how do we make it?

The Just City Essays: 26 Visions for Urban Equity, Inclusion and Opportunity aims to inspire ideas and practices to tackle the deep inequalities that mark our urban settlements. The team behind the venture invited 24 authors to address two questions: What would a just city look like and what could be the strategies to get there? The questions were put to architects, mayors, artists, doctors, designers and scholars, philanthropists, ecologists, urban planners and community activists. The responses came from 22 cities across five continents.

Contributions are informed by growng up in the South Side of Chicago, living in Johannesburg, urban renewal in Paris, and any more experiences from across the world. We learn that Mumbai has 1% of the open space per person that New York has, and how urban design has been used to promote exclusionary practices. In contrast, people in the barrios around Buenas Aires have built a "solidarity economy".

The book ends with David Maddox's vision of the just city. He says "It’s green. It’s full of nature’s benefits, accessible to all. It is resilient, and sustainable, and livable, and just. It is a city that has a clear and grounded vision of what these words mean. It acts on justice and the place of nature in the city. It has the hope to believe that these things can can be achieved, and the courage and faith to bring them to life."